Scott Tady: Big Beaver, Beaver and Midland shows (and local bands) to look forward to this month

Let's get pumped up for some upcoming shows with local ties.

Two venerable Beaver Valley country-rock bands will play the big stage at Jergel's Rhythm Grille.

Eldorado Band, with a few new original tunes in its arsenal, opens a Jan. 18 Jergel's show for nationally known country artist Colt Ford. Tickets cost $27-$40, with 100 early entry tickets at 6 p.m. guaranteeing seats. Eldorado hits the stage at 8.

Then on Feb. 15, the Honkytonk Heroes headline Jergel's for a 7:30 p.m. show with tickets $5 and $10.

Being a top-billed band at the Marshall Township roadhouse is a nice reward for the Honkytonk Heroes, one of our valley's hardest-working bands with an all-star lineup that includes vocalists Tony Barge and Ron Lantz, electrifying drummer Stefan Rodriguez and guitar ace Tony Lang.

There's a reason Rochester Smokehouse & BBQ named a platter after the Honkytonk Heroes, who packed Mario's 410 Grille in Bridgewater last weekend.

Big Beaver bluegrass

Bluegrass fans will turn out strong for the Winter Ice Jam on Jan. 19-20 at the Ramada by Wyndham in Big Beaver.

The band schedule won't be finalized until next week, but top-flight western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio acts like Echo Valley, Middle Ground, Bits 'n' Pieces, Sweaty Already, Hidden Drive, John & Wendy Mackin Band and the N.A. Fiddlers will entertain in the hotel's ballroom.

Fans spend the evening at the Ramada, with every single room currently booked (there's a waiting list).

"The event is considered a hotel takeover, where bluegrass musicians and attendees from the multi-state area 'take over' the entire hotel," the event's website says. "The stage will start Friday night at 7 p.m. and music will continue until 10 p.m. On Saturday, music begins again at noon and runs until 10 p.m. New bands take the stage every 30 minutes throughout the weekend to perform their favorite bluegrass music."

Although the event is free, money is raised through basket raffles, 50/50 raffles, instrument raffles, donations, and merchandise sales that benefit the Bluegrass Relief Fund, which has raised over $100,000 to help support countless friends of the bluegrass community.

I attended last year's Winter Ice Jam and recommend the event, which relocated to the Big Beaver hotel last year after a few decades in Butler.

"Beaver County has been a wonderful, open-arms community for us," Ice Jam coordinator Amy George said.

Price is right in Midland

Billy Price returns to Beaver County on Jan. 26, headlining the BlackBox Theater at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center.

A frequent nominee in the national Blues Music Awards, Price will be the latest entertainer in the Midland center's "Blues in The Box" series, hitting the stage at 7 p.m. with $20 and $25 tickets at LincolnParkArts.org.

"It's been a few years since I've played at the Lincoln Park center, and I'm really looking forward to it," Price said. "It's a great venue with first-class sound and great seating for the audience.

"I just finished work in Los Angeles on my new album, 'Person of Interest,' which I plan to release sometime this year," Price said. "I'll be debuting some songs from the new album at the concert along with some audience favorites and other songs from my previous recordings."

Price is an inductee in the Pittsburgh Rock 'n Roll Legends, recognizing his national work as vocalist for guitar great Roy Buchanan, and his years leading one of the Pittsburgh scene's most popular groups, the Keystone Rhythm Band, which recorded its 1979 debut album at Jeree Recording in New Brighton.

Surf's up in Beaver

Surf-rock band the Boss Stingrays launch the 2024 Cabin Fever Music Series on Jan. 27 at Beaver Station Cultural & Event Center.

To match the Pittsburgh band's classic surf-rock sounds, spectators are encouraged to wear Hawaiian shirts, and they'll all receive a Hawaiian lei upon arrival. Each $35 ticket comes with complimentary craft beer and wine before and during the performance, plus hangout time with the band.

Reserve a seat at beaverstation.org.

The Boss Stingrays formed in 2021 to preserve the tradition of historic instrumental surf music prominent from 1959 to the 1964 arrival of The Beatles.

"After Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper died in 1959, rock 'n roll took a few years to figure out where it was going," Timmy Klatte, drummer for The Boss Stingrays, said. "By this time, musicians, mostly from California, but not exclusively, were developing new techniques based on the influence of Latin and Middle Eastern rhythms. The California bands were especially drawn to the sport of surfing. The powerful sound of the ocean was something they wanted to emulate in their music. Electronic reverb was widely used to attempt to give guitars a 'wet' sound.

"In 1960, a country singer by the name of Dick Dale decided to apply this reverb to his voice at first − but somehow wound up applying it to his guitar − and there it all began. He quickly developed a following in Orange County, Ca., in the Rendezvous Ballroom playing this new type of music. Soon his audiences became so big that he needed louder amplifiers."

Once Dale and guitar maker Leo Fender co-developed a more powerful type of guitar amplifier that became known as the Fender Showman tube amplifier, the Surf Music Movement was riding high.

"So, anyone studying the history of rock 'n roll music absolutely needs to include this brief chapter, for it not only details the history of the electric guitar and bass, but also − most importantly − the history of the amplifier," Klatte said. "The surf musicians were the first people to 'crank it.'

"When you are treated to the high-performance surf of The Boss Stingrays, you will be taken back to a hot Saturday night in Orange County, Ca. in the early 1960s, where 4,000 teenagers packed the Rendezvous."

Ambridge grad writes Dunkin' song

That's the songwriting talents of Baden native Danny Dunlap you've heard in the recent “Holiday Unboxing” TV commercial for Dunkin’ Donuts.

The national spot depicts a donut's point of view gazing up from an opened Duncan box as joyful folks, including Santa Claus, get ready to grab a fried dough treat.

We next hear a man with a Boston accent sing the Dunlap-written lyrics:

“The world’s got you feeling glazed over,Sprinkle some love all around.Just climb your way up, out of that hole,And you’ll be the taste of the town.Grab the one thing that everyone’s lovin’.And as it happens, they come by the dozen.Everybody loves a donut.”

Dunlap, a 1992 Ambridge High grad, and two of his sound design teammates at Beacon Street Studios composed and performed the melody, too, for what was one of December's most popular TV ads.

Dunlap has written music for numerous Super Bowl commercials by heavy hitters like Amazon, AT&T and Cheetos (a spot starring Mila Kunis).

Beaver Co. legislator in PCN race

Pennsylvania Sen. Elder Vogel Jr., R-47, New Sewickley Township, finds himself in a whole other kind of race Tuesday at the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.

Vogel will compete in the Celebrity Scurry Race, where contestants drive a team of draft horses pulling a feed scurry through an obstacle course. Part of the course involves loading and unloading straw bales.

I like Sen. Vogel's chances in the race, as he is a fourth-generation dairy farmer.

Live coverage begins at 6 p.m. on Pennsylvania Cable Network's free PCN streaming site or on the PCN Select app available at pcntv.com.

PCN's regular cable/satellite channel, shown on Comcast, will provide coverage of the 2024 Pennsylvania Farm Show today through Jan. 13. Though the Celebrity Scurry Race will only be streamed, as the main channel will be busy that same Tuesday night airing the Farm Show Scholarship Awards and Sale of Champions.

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and easy to reach at stady@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Tady: Beaver Valley bands and shows to look forward to this January